Vermont BioDiesel & BioHeat®
As the name implies, BioDiesel is a clean-burning, renewable fuel produced from domestic crops like soybeans, sunflower and canola. It can also be made from recycled cooking oil. When used as home heating fuel, BioDiesel is mixed with heating oil and known as BioHeat®. A common blend is 5% BioDiesel with 95% heating oil, also known as B5.
Here at the Energy Co-op of Vermont, we began experimenting with BioHeat® in the summer of 2005. However, we lacked the storage tanks and heating systems required to allow us to deliver BioHeat® year-round.
In the fall of 2006, we were delighted when the owner of our Essex Junction terminal began construction for a heated, 10,000 gallon BioDiesel tank and all the necessary pipes, valves and meters required to load our oil trucks with Vermont BioHeat®. And on June 2, 2007, we began delivering BioHeat® (as a B5 blend) to our customers and members supplied from this terminal. That fall and winter, we also delivered B20 (20% BioDiesel/80% heating oil) to 20 Energy Co-op of Vermont members living in Essex Junction, VT.
We have not made any BioHeat® fuel deliveries since the spring of 2008 and the Essex Junction BioDiesel facility has been shut down and moved. Heating oil prices at the Essex Junction terminal were consistently higher than those at Burlington terminals. And it made no sense to load BioDiesel in Essex Junction and then drive to Burlington to load heating oil. We expect to resume BioHeat deliveries within the next few years when all New England wholesale suppliers should have BioHeat available for their customers.
For more information on BioHeat®, go to the National BioDiesel Board. For up to date information about BioDiesel activity in Vermont, please visit the Vermont Biofuels Association.